Popups are among the best ways for WordPress websites to boost sales and grow their lists. That’s why there are—literally—hundreds of popup plugins available for WordPress.
But with all those choices, how are you supposed to know which of the many popup plugins is right for you?
It’s hard to choose a tool, which is exactly why we put this list together. We’ve analyzed the features, reviews, and pricing of the best popup plugins out there today, so that you don’t have to.
Let’s get started by looking at all the features you absolutely need if you want to create eye-catching, effective popups!
What should you look for in a popup builder?
There are a number of key features you’ll need to create high-converting popups quickly and easily. Here are the five most important!
1. Pre-made templates
Pre-made templates are especially important if you don’t have in-house designers and developers.
While looking for a popup builder, make sure that you like how the templates look and that there are many different use cases available.
You should be able to find templates for exit-intent popups, gamified popups, and product recommendation popups—just to name a few.
2. An easy-to-use editor
Templates provide a good starting point, but once you choose one, you might still want to customize it to fit the look and feel of your website. It’s best to find a popup builder that allows you to easily customize your campaigns.
Drag and drop editors are the best. They allow you to change everything, right down to the layout of the template itself, without the help of a developer.
3. Mobile-friendly design
Because more and more people are shopping on their mobile phones, it’s important to make sure your popups look great on mobile, too.
Studies suggest that by 2025, 44.2% of online sales in the US will come from mobile. That’s huge, and it means that mobile conversions will become an increasingly important part of your business.
4. Advanced targeting options
The best popup campaign strategies require you to show specific popups to certain segments of site visitors. Great popup builder plugins have lots of targeting options and allow you to personalize your messages based on the customer journey.
The more precisely you can target different segments of visitors, the more relevant your messages will seem to them. That means you can more effectively guide them through the different stages of awareness until they’re ready to make a purchase.
5. Campaign analytics
It’s important to see all the important analytics about your popup campaigns so you can understand whether what you’re doing is working or not.
At a minimum, you should be able to see each campaign’s impressions, conversions, and conversion rates.
Ideally, you should also be able to see assisted revenue. This will let you know how much of a sale can be directly attributed to the campaigns that a customer has seen.
What’s the best WordPress popup plugin?
Now that you know what to look for in a popup plugin, it’s time to take a look at the top 10 popup builders available for WordPress!
1. OptiMonk
OptiMonk is one of the best popup builders today, because it not only allows you to grow your list with popups and drive conversions, but also to create personalized user experiences for each visitor.
It offers multiple on-site message campaign types besides popups: sticky bars, side messages, full screens, gamified messages, embedded content, and surveys.
OptiMonk is jam-packed with useful features that lead directly to higher conversion rates. Even better, almost all of these features are available in the free version (except A/B testing, unbranded popups, and targeting based on custom variables—which are useful upgrades you’ll get access to with their available tier plans).
Main benefits:
- Access to a huge template library: 300+ beautiful, mobile-friendly templates at no additional cost. You’ve got tons of pre-built popup options to choose from that are designed for a variety of different use cases.
- An easy-to-use drag & drop editor: Creating a popup has never been easier! You don’t need any coding knowledge to make your popups look exactly how you want. This editor is truly “what you see is what you get,” so you can do everything visually.
- Powerful triggering options: You can create an exit-intent popup or use other triggers like a scroll trigger, a time-based trigger, and even an on-click trigger. This is essential for ensuring that your popups appear at the exact right moment to maximize conversions.
- Intelligent targeting features: Target different visitor segments with fully customized messages based on demographics and user behavior: URL targeting, new visitor vs. returning visitor, targeting based on cart value and content, geotargeting, and more.
- Conversion-increasing features: Use countdown timers, personalized product recommendations, or dynamic text replacement to achieve maximum conversions.
- Google, AdBlock & GDPR safe: OptiMonk campaigns are fully GDPR compliant and Google friendly, so you (and your customers) are safe and secure. Most customers really care about their security and privacy, so this is an important feature.
- Detailed analytics & insights: Get in-depth insights into how your campaigns are performing and why. It’s crucial to track your marketing performance so you know what your return on investment (ROI) is.
- 30+ email, CMS, and ecommerce integrations: Including popular solutions like MailChimp, Klaviyo, and HubSpot.
- A/B testing: Test alternative versions of your messages to find out which brings in the most qualified leads. A/B testing is the best way to optimize your popups.
Pricing:
Free, or from $29/month.
2. Elementor
Elementor’s popup builder is part of their Elementor Pro plugin which allows you to build your website on WordPress. In addition to creating popups, you can use Elementor to design your homepage, landing pages, blog pages, and more.
Main benefits:
- Drag & drop editor: Create custom popups with a subscription form without any coding knowledge. Choose a pre-made template and make it your own using their customization options.
- Precise targeting: Engage your audience with the right triggering options, display conditions, and advanced settings. Each new popup you create can be targeted towards a well-defined target audience, avoiding the problem of showing irrelevant popups to your customers.
Pricing:
From $49/year.
3. Popupsmart
Popupsmart is a simple popup builder that allows you to increase your ecommerce sales and build your email list. Their easy-to-use software means that you won’t have to set aside much time to create your popups.
Main benefits:
- Target website visitors: Exit-intent, geo-location, scroll triggers, HTML, and cookie targeting are the most widely used targeting features.
- Analytics: Check the statistics to see how well your new popups are converting.
Pricing:
Free, or from $24/month.
4. Sumo
Sumo is an email capture popup builder designed to help you collect more subscribers. You can set up and activate Sumo’s subscription form without any coding skills.
This lead generation tool also has several other products that integrate seamlessly with their popup maker, like KingSumo (for running viral giveaways) and SendFox (an email marketing tool).
Main benefits:
- Fully customizable design: Create a new popup that looks however you like using their popup maker. The setup process is easy and streamlined.
- Email campaigns: Use Sumo’s email marketing software to easily improve your marketing automation. Since the two tools were created by the same developer, there aren’t any complex steps involved in integrating the two apps—everything transfers over seamlessly.
Pricing:
Free, or $49/month.
5. OptinMonster
OptinMonster is a conversion optimization toolkit that helps online stores convert their website traffic into subscribers and customers.
Its advanced features include a user-friendly popup builder, triggering options that control when your popup displays, and lead generation forms to help you generate more subscribers.
Main benefits:
- Drag and drop form builder: Customize your lead capture form with their easy-to-use drag and drop builder.
- Multiple types of lead forms: You can create a lightbox popup, a floating bar, or a scroll box. This is great because different types of popups are best for different use cases. For instance, a floating bar is ideal for a free shipping bar, while a lightbox popup is great for collecting email addresses.
- Page-level targeting: Hyper-segment your leads using OptinMonster’s triggering, targeting, and segmentation rules. Their triggering rules control when a popup appears (e.g. on exit intent).
Pricing:
From $14/month.
6. Poptin
Poptin is a website popup builder that allows you to create advanced website popups and forms to improve your website’s conversion rate in minutes.
Main benefits:
- Performance report: Poptin tracks how each WordPress popup is performing and sends you the resulting data in an easy-to-understand graphical format so you can see whether the results of your popup campaigns are matching your goals.
- Email marketing integration: The platform seamlessly integrates with many popular email marketing services and CRM platforms. This makes it easy to run campaigns that proceed from popup to email communication automatically.
Pricing:
Free, or from $25/month.
7. Sleeknote
Sleeknote is a popup builder that also allows you to create forms, sidebars, slide-ins, or gamified messages. These are all the important popup types you’ll need to run great campaigns on your online store.
Main benefits:
- A/B Testing: A/B test different headlines, images, and copy to discover what leads to the highest-converting campaigns. This feature helps you optimize your popups to get the best possible performance.
- Customizable templates: Create beautiful, eye-catching forms that match the look and feel of your website. Sleeknote’s drag and drop popup builder has all the key features you’ll need to create high-performing popups.
- Multi-step campaigns: You can link the different types of popups they offer into “multi-step” campaigns. This helps online stores show the right popups to users at different stages of the customer journey.
Pricing:
From €62/month. 7-day free trial.
8. Privy
Privy is an ecommerce marketing platform that allows you to build your list and send email marketing emails and texts from one place.
Since you can send emails through the same platform that you use to collect contact details, there’s a lot of time-saving automation you can take advantage of.
Main benefits:
- Cart abandonment popups: Create exit-intent popups to capture leads from website visitors who were just about to abandon their carts.
- Customizable email templates: Choose from a variety of email capture templates, including templates designed for seasonal events.
Pricing:
Free, or from $45/month.
9. Justuno
Justuno is a personalized onsite messaging tool that allows you to convert more website traffic into customers. They have an advanced AI system that helps you deliver personalized messages to your customers.
Main benefits:
- Gamification: Create engaging promotions featuring gaming options for an enjoyable interactive experience.
- Personalization: Use personalized onsite experiences to move visitors from one stage to the next in the buyer’s journey. Personalization means fewer customers will see irrelevant messages.
Pricing:
From $29/month. Free trial available.
10. Wisepops
Wisepops is a popup builder that allows users to create beautiful, contextual popups, banners, and bars. Your customers will love the stunning designs you’re able to deliver with Wisepops’ many popup templates.
Main benefits:
- Drag and drop editor: Use their popup maker to create onsite messages that match the look and feel of your site.
- A/B testing and analytics: A/B test different versions of your popup campaigns to optimize your conversion rates.
Pricing:
From €49/month.
Wrapping up
That’s it for our overview of the best popup plugins you can use to add popups to your WordPress website. Using these WordPress plugins, you can make any type of campaign you might need, whether that’s a lightbox popup, an exit-intent popup, an email popup, or a video popup.
Now for the hard part: which to choose? All the options on this list will do the job, but there are some key differences.
Do you prefer the simplicity of running everything through a single platform, even if it means you might miss out on some of the more specialized popup functionalities? Then you might want to consider an all-in-one tool like Sumo or Privy. These platforms allow you to take advantage of email marketing software that’s directly connected to their popup software.
Tight budget? Stick with a free tool or opt for software that offers a free trial so you can be sure it works for you before you buy.
And if you’re looking for the all-around best way to capture emails and boost conversions, you’ll want the most powerful popup software available. Sign up to OptiMonk for free and create a new WordPress popup for your website today!
Let us know in the comments if you have experience with one of these tools, or which software you’re planning to try!
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